Things Fall Apart Quotes

“The white man is very clever. He came quietly and peaceably with his religion. We were amused at his foolishness and allowed him to stay. Now he has won our brothers, and our clan can no longer act like one. He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart.”
― Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart

“He saw himself and his fathers crowding round their ancestral shrine waiting in vain for worship and sacrifice and finding nothing but ashes of bygone days..”
― Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart

“Unoka went into an inner room and soon returned with a small wooden disc containing a kola nut, some alligator pepper and a lump of white chalk.

"I have kola," he announced when he sat down, and passed the disc over to his guest.

"Thank you. He who brings kola brings life. But I think you ought to break it," replied Okoye passing back the disc.

"No, it is for you, I think," and they argued like this for a few moments before Unoka accepted the honor of breaking the kola. Okoye, meanwhile, took the lump of chalk, drew some lines on the floor, and then painted his big toe.”
― Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart

“When we gather together in the moonlit village ground it is not because of the moon. Every man can see it in his own compound. We come together because it is good for kinsmen to do so. [...] But I fear for you young people because you do not understand how strong is the bond of kinship. You do not know what it is to speak with one voice. And what is the result? An abominable religion has settled among you. A man can now leave his father and his brothers. He can curse the gods of his fathers and his ancestors, like a hunter's dog that suddenly goes mad and turns on his master. I fear for you; I fear for the clan.”
― Achebe Chinua

“the day you will loose your tongue;the day you will value the essence of words. The day you will loose your sight; the day you shall value the things we all overlook and appreciate the power of looking. The day you shall loose your ears;the day you shall cherish the power of hearing. The day your mind will be at sixes and sevens;the day you shall yearn for a sound mind. The day you shall have an amputated body part; the day you shall understand the pity of staying idle with an able body. The day you shall loose your good shelter; the day you shall value the power of good sleep. The day you shall go to bed without food; the day you shall learn the great lessons of hunger well. The day accident shall befall you; the day you shall cherish the value of peace and understand 'had I know' well. The day you shall look back in regret of your choices; the day you shall realize how you have wasted your time and realize the best choices in life. The day you shall get a better understanding of things; the day you shall know what ignorance did and could have done to you. No one can know it all in life unless the day we shall get to know it all in life”
― Ernest Agyemang Yeboah

“Proverbs are the palm oil with which words are eaten”
― Chinua Achebe

“Sometimes some things fall apart so better things that are for your highest good can fall in to place rightfully so!”
― Angie karan

“Our elders say that the sun will shine on those who stand before it shines on those who kneel under them.”
― Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart

“Even very great things, he meant, can't last forever. Or beautiful things, I suppose. Those too. Things that don't really need replacing except because they fall apart.”
― Emma Richler, Be My Wolff

“But there was a young man who had been captivated. His name was Nwoye, Okonkwo's first son. It was not the mad logic of the Trinity that captivated him. He did not understand it. It was the poetry of the new religion, something felt in the marrow. The hymn about brothers who sat in darkness and in fear seemed to answer the vague and persistent question that haunted his young soul--the question of the twins crying in the bush and the question of Ikemefuna who was killed.He felt a relief within him as the hymn poured into his parched soul. The words of the hymn were like the drops of frozen rain melting on the dry palate of the panting earth.”
― Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart

“It is not bravery when a man fights with a woman.”
― Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart

“A toad does not run in the daytime for nothing”
― Chinua Achebe